


Ready, Set, Pumpkin Guts

by rhysiana



Series: Bad Date Bingo [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Future Fic, Halloween, Kid Fic, M/M, Pumpkin carving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 10:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8324344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhysiana/pseuds/rhysiana
Summary: Some tooth-rotting future fluff from Kent, Benjamín, and family, just in time for Halloween!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Kent and Benjamín met in "Bad Date Bingo," the first work in this series, so if you want to know where this guy came from, read that! He's pretty cool, I recommend it. (Shouldn't have much impact on the ability to read this story, though.)
> 
> Written for Day 1 (Jack-o-lantern carving) of the 13 Days of Halloween Check, Please! fic-a-thon.

Kent’s finger hovered over the start button on the stopwatch, three sets of very intense eyes focused on it.

“Are we all clear on the rules?”

Three firm nods.

“All right. On your mark…”

Hands tightened on knife handles.

“Get set…”

Weight shifted to the front edges of three chairs.

“Go!”

It was carnage.

Benjamín came up behind Kent and wrapped his arms around his middle, resting his chin on Kent’s shoulder. “Are you sure this was wise, giving our children sharp implements and then turning it into a competition, of all things?”

“Hey, they learned their knife skills from you. Besides, it’s only the pumpkin cleaning that’s a timed event. They can take as long as they want on the carving.”

“Mm-hmm.” Benjamín still sounded skeptical as he eyed the activity at the table.

“They’ve been told to save all the guts for you, but if you want them doing it in some specific way, you’d better go tell them. I’m not sure how long you’ve got.”

Benjo’s eyes lit up and he gave Kent a peck on the cheek. “Thank you, mi amor,” he murmured in Kent’s ear before straightening up to head to the table and inspect the bowls set out beside each child.

“So who’s going to help me separate out the seeds after you’re all done?” he asked.

“Shhhh, Papa, we’re _racing_!” Ray said, utterly scandalized. “Go away!”

“Sorry, going, going…” Benjo raised placating hands as he backed away. He returned to Kent’s side. “My god, you have raised bossy children.”

“ _Me?_ ”

“Yes, you, Mr. NHL Captain.”

“Please. I’ve seen you in a restaurant kitchen before.”

“Hmmmm. Okay, point. Maybe we’re both at fault here.”

Kent leaned back into him. “I’m good with that.”

“Done!” Alyssa cried, slamming her spoon down on the table. Her siblings looked on with great irritation.

“Uh-uh,” Kent said to them as he came over to inspect. “There’s been no referee decision yet, keep working. You never know.” He picked up the supposedly cleaned pumpkin. “Hmmmm,” he said thoughtfully, turning it this way and that under the dining room light. He passed it to Benjamín. “What do you think?”

His husband examined the pumpkin with equal seriousness before nodding. “Yes, I think we can declare a winner.” He handed it back to Alyssa.

“Yes!” She pumped her fists in the air. Ray and Taryn looked disgruntled.

“Okay, for real this time, who’s helping me separate the seeds and the pulp?”

“I’ll do it, Papa,” Alyssa said. “I just wanted to win. I’ll carve my pumpkin later. I haven’t decided on my design yet anyway.”

Kent leaned down by Ray’s chair and whispered, “Are you _sure_ you don’t want to help play in the icky pumpkin guts?”

As anticipated, Ray’s eyes lit up. “I wanna help!”

Benjamín laughed and led them both into the kitchen with the bowls.

Kent seated himself in Alyssa’s abandoned chair and stretched his legs out under the table. “Whatcha gonna carve, Tar?”

“Kit,” she replied, and if he had a sudden need to clear his throat, well, the air was dry here in the desert, that was all. It had nothing to do with the love of his eldest child for his increasingly ancient cat.

Soon the air was filled with the smells of roasting pumpkin seeds. Taryn consulted with him occasionally about the relative size of Kit’s ears as she worked on a preliminary sketch first, and Benjamín’s instructions about how to prepare pumpkin empanada filling drifted in from the kitchen.

**Author's Note:**

> I know carving pumpkins and cooking pumpkins are different! Let's just assume that Benjo's children have become resigned to having to carve weird cooking pumpkins because their dad couldn't stand the thought of inedible pumpkin guts.
> 
> I vaguely headcanoned about Kent and Benjo's kids in the endnotes of the last story, but as you can see, they now have names! More details about them, for the curious:  
> -Taryn: eldest child, the future Olympic snowboarder, she and Kent have a special bond due to their shared drive to succeed at elite levels of sport and their mutual inability to sit still for very long. When Kent retires from the NHL (I think this story might take place in his last year?), he takes her wherever she needs to go for training and competitions.  
> -Alyssa: middle child, the roller derby skater, chose Donna Cherry as her derby name, (Kent and Taryn make it a point to bring her back the weirdest and most garish tights they can find from every trip), also highly competitive but more relaxed about it than Kent and Taryn, likes the social aspects of derby a lot more than any of the other sports her dads let her try before that.  
> -Ray: youngest child, determinedly non-binary in all my headcanoning, the future aerialist, the most artistic of the bunch, Benjo's baby for that reason.


End file.
